Insomnia
by Whyler S
Summary: Loki's punishment doesn't go as planned, and all thanks to Sigyn. Logyn, and whatever the ship name for Thor and Jane is. Thane? Thoster? ThunderScience? Warning for character death, torture, and gore. More Hurt than Comfort. Rating may change to M.


A/N: Norse Mythology mentioned, all explained at bottom A/N for those not familiar with the myths.

Character death, torture, and gore. However, since the gore is only as bad as the Bones TV series regularly features and the series isn't rated TV-MA I've decided to go with a T rating. Still, proceed with caution and please tell me if you think I should move the rating to M.

* * *

He tries to sleep.

The dark is not enough to hide the silhouette on top of him, familiar and a heavy weight. It pushes him down and the rocks beneath him press into his back painfully, a familiar bite he's grown used to. Just as he has grown used to the ache in his throat, the smell of decomposing flesh, and the revulsion his seidhr feels every time it flows past his restraints and senses the true nature of the iron manacles.

The snake above him is silent. He hears the whistle of venom (cannot see it, his head is pushed to the side and pinned there) falling through the air, a single drop among many. Like its brethren, it hits and squirms through savaged and rotting flesh. It spreads its poison and fire and then stops as it is absorbed.

In the cave there is no way to mark the passing of time. The drops of venom fall and the darkness is complete and absolute, and he can't tell how long he has spent tied and pinned to the rock with no way to pass the time but to sleep. Once he had tears, once he had fears of madness, now he couldn't say if he truly exists or not.

The stillness breaks as the next drop of venom eats through the last layer of skin.

Loki feels something coat his chest that he has just enough time to hope is blood before venom mixes with it and he feels his skin suddenly light on fire. The next drop of venom is not so kind and a scream tears through his throat, still raw after his begging and pleading with Sigyn. The fire doesn't fade before the next drop hits and the pain causes him to jerk. His chains yank back at him and his seidhr swirls in nauseous disgust. He has tears after all, and they spill as the next drop falls. Blood slowly begins to replace the smell of corpse.

* * *

Thor comes bearing a torch and Loki squeezes his eyes shut as the light slowly approaches and he begins to see the white-blonde strands of Sigyn's hair. The cave is silent, though, and Loki can tell where Thor is just by the sound of his boots.

He can also tell when Thor sees the result of the Allfather's punishment because he gasps and the torch falls to the ground. The sound of fire sputtering and quenched by what is likely his own blood brings Loki to open his eyes again.

"Brother," chokes out Thor, somewhere in front of him.

Loki would reply but the Silvertongue has finally been silenced, or at least the Silvervocalchords. It is amazing he is still alive with that hole being worn through his throat, but he supposed Jotun physiology is different than Aesir, which would also explain why he can still make out the outline of Thor even miles under the surface and hidden away from any light. They never taught much about Jotun in Asgard except how to kill them.

So Loki is not surprised that Thor is horrified, because Sigyn was a respectable Aesir wife, and to sacrifice herself for a Jotun monster was unthinkable _wrong_.

Another drop of venom falls and the only sound he can make, a hiss of air, fills the silence. He shifts and this time the venom runs towards the back of his neck. Soon he will be dead, and then there will be two corpses lying in this cave.

Well, two corpses and some intestines masquerading as iron chains.

There's a sound suspiciously like sobbing but Loki's not been able to do much but hiss in a while so that can't be it. He frowns in confusion and tries to puzzle it out when Thor _roars_ and there is a sound like the whistle of falling venom, only much louder, and then rock smashes. Thor pants and calls Mjolnir to him, and the hammer glows as it flies over Loki's head. It is so sudden that Loki doesn't have time to close his eyes and he sees the matted hair and grinning skull and what has to be flesh hanging off bones.

Thor sees it too, and spends the next few minutes emptying his stomach in the corner of the cave. Loki would do the same, but after the binding on his chest was corroded by the venom, it began to spread to his stomach and he is fairly certain most of his inner organs are destroyed. It really is a shame the manacles on his wrists and ankles and the other chains are out of the snake's reach.

It then occurs to Loki that he hasn't felt the burn of another drop of venom in a while.

Finally, Thor stops heaving and approaches Loki. "Here," he says, among the sounds of rustling cloth. "This... this was for Sigyn."

He places something in Loki's mouth, cool and firm. It smells familiar and sweet, so Loki prods at it experimentally with his tongue and is provided with a taste that his memories inform him is apple. Cautiously, he bites down, and the juice of the fruit drops into his mouth, spreading a warm flush through his body.

It is a drastic change to feel, the drop of the juice of one of Idunn's apples compared to the drop of venom from Skadi's snake.

When his skin knits back together and his is whole again, he finds that Thor has removed Sigyn from on top of him. Most of her, at least. Her arm still pins down his head, apparently fallen off of her corpse, and Thor carefully removes it. Loki closes his eyes and breathes, the stench of decomposed flesh strong to his repaired olfactory senses. His vision seems even better - perhaps this isn't so much an aspect of his Jotun nature but that of a Jotun who has partaken of Idunn's apples - and he can clearly make out Thor as he hovers over him.

"Are you feeling better, brother?" asks Thor.

"We are _not_ brothers," says Loki.

At his rebuttal, Thor grins. He calls Mjolnir and breaks Loki's restraints and then picks him up and carries him out of the cave. Loki makes good use of his regrown vocal chords to protest this. Eventually they reach the surface, and are not there a second before some twisted version of the Bifrost that his seidhr senses Midgard's hand in seizes them and deposits them on Midgard, confirming Loki's suspicion.

SHIELD is the same, but Fury is gone and Director Maria Hill's hair is more grey than brown. Thor's Jane alone remains the same as he once saw her through the eyes of the Destroyer, give or take a few years, and he suspects Thor's hand and apparent access to Idunn's orchard in that. They are there while Midgard's healers prod and poke at Loki, and finally each of the women give him some type of threat before they leave him.

He stares up at the ceiling, laying on a flat surface that, no matter how soft, is not helping him in his quest for sleep. The weight of the blankets is too heavy. It is dark, too dark, and he swears he can hear the whistle of a drop of venom falling through the air every time he closes his eyes. When he finally manages to fall asleep, he wakes drenched in sweat that feels too much like blood and the snake's poison mingled and his throat raw from screaming.

In the cave, sleep was an escape, but now that he's free it haunts him.

* * *

Eventually, he starts to remember. His mind heals and he can look at snakes without flinching and think of Sigyn without feeling the phantom ache of screaming at her to move out of the way. It takes longer for his heartbeat not to rise whenever he's left in complete darkness. And, by the time Hill's successor dies, he doesn't hum to fill the silence any longer.

But years pass and Loki doesn't sleep.

* * *

She is a pile of bones, now. He strokes the skull once, right above where her eyebrow would be, and reaches for it to carry it up. Thor is carrying the broken chains because Loki still remembers the way his seidhr recoiled at the touch of the restraints. They make their way out of the cave, solemn and silent, and Loki can't contain his relief at the light and open sky around them when they reach the surface.

Jane awaits them on Asgard. She's put away her fine Queen's robes for jeans and a flannel shirt and holds a shovel in her hand, but Loki can't think of burying Sigyn under the ground again, so they find a suitable vessel and walk out to the observatory and sit on the bridge. The universe stretches around them, a wide expanse of stars and planets, and Loki thinks of how Sigyn loved everything about the view on the walk to the observatory. He decides it's right.

They send his wife and son out into the cosmos in two separate vessels, forever to float among the universe.

Loki is tired, after, and he sleeps.

* * *

A/N: Apparently I should not be allowed anywhere near Norse Mythology or granted access to a keyboard when my radio starts playing angsty music.

I've never written horror before, I don't know if this even qualifies. I mean, it has a semi-happy-ish ending. Ah, well, I'll try harder next time. I promise not to kill Sigyn off, too.

I appreciate all kinds of feedback, but nothing motivates or pleases like a review!

**Mythology Index:** (guys I'm assuming you are all familiar with the snake-dripping-venom thing because it's spread across the fandom like wildfire)

Sigyn - Loki's wife. Her name means victorious and she is mostly remembered in the myths for collecting the snake's venom in a bowl, but Marvel named her the Goddess of Fidelity and turned her into Loki's doormat. She and Loki had two sons, Vali and Narfi/Narvi. There's a lot of beautiful artwork depticting her holding a bowl over Loki, and I think her Wikipedia page shows a few photos of those paintings.

Narfi - Loki's son. Depending on what you read, it's Vali that's killed and used to tie Loki down to the rocks, or Vali that is transformed into a wolf and kills Narfi. I've gone with this version, mostly because it is my headcanon that Vali finds Fenrir/Fenris the two brothers start their own wolf-pack.

Skadi - Jotun/Frost Giantess, and also the Godess of Skiing, who you should probably look up. Her story is interesting, but too long to tell. There's a part with a goat that should shock any of you Loki fans yet not introduced to this particular myth. She's the one who fastened the snake over Loki's head, likely in revenge for the role he played in the death of her father, who kidnapped Idunn and her apples with the help of Loki. There's a lot more to the story, but, again, it's too long to tell.

Idunn's golden apples - they grant the Aesir (Asgardians) their longevity, heal, and vanish scars. If you want to know more, you should probably look this up on Wikipedia and Marvel's Wiki.


End file.
